Back in the day, I was tagged on a Facebook post under the call “recommend IT recruitment agencies,” and the comments section quickly filled with over 30 company names, some even tagged themselves. The extremely low entry barrier and having a couple of “personal” clients continue to birth a colossal number of recruitment agencies, a large part of which specialize or transition solely into IT. The allure here is apparent — the hype, high salaries, and a multitude of foreign and affluent clients. However, what often goes unnoticed or neglected by these agencies?
Sharing my insights and advice, derived from daily practices as a managing partner with 10+ years of experience.
The Core Missions of Recruiting Agencies aka IT Recruitment Entrepreneurs
- Foster Client Business Growth:
It sounds way too grandiose, but I’ll elaborate below. - Save Clients’ Time:
By recruiting the right talent within desired timelines.
- Provide Objective and Current Information:
Regarding the job market, candidates, and competitors.
- Promotion and Accurate Representation of Client Companies:
To the jobseeker market.
1. Foster Client Business Growth
Often, novice recruiters or those not oriented toward long-term relationships acquire a vacancy and immediately strive to fill it at all costs. However, as they progress, it becomes clear that the stated requirements do not match the actual needs of the team or what the market can provide. Different participants in the recruitment process may have varying perspectives on the ideal candidate; there might already be personnel within the organization who could fill the vacancy through internal rotation.
If the client doesn’t allow a deeper dive into the business beyond merely providing the job description, there’s a high probability that the task at hand might not have been articulated correctly, or the company might be looking for the wrong individual. When you immerse yourself and understand the business as if it were your own, sometimes, in conjunction with the client, you may come to a smart decision.
For instance, instead of searching for a fantastic mid-level candidate with an average salary for a year, it might be quicker to train a confident junior or even two. Raising a loyal colleague who has grown within the team to a higher position could also be an option, and then searching for someone to assist them at a lower level, or realizing that such a person is not needed at all.
From a recruiter’s perspective, or let’s say, from the standpoint of someone focused on earning, these decisions, alas, deprive one of substantial profits in the short term. In modern realities, not everyone is ready to pay for HR consulting, and the ability to clearly and timely communicate that such work merits the expense is an art in itself.
At the same time, the cost cannot be so high that it creates cash flow gaps for the business you are consulting. This is where the magic begins. If you manage to find the golden formula where the client’s business is willing to pay for your services, your tips contribute to the client’s business growth, and you don’t go into the red consulting and researching round the clock, you’ll achieve what you were striving for.
You’ll enter into exclusive, fruitful relationships and become a true bridge between the job market and the company’s personnel. Plus, you’ll add another success story to your portfolio.
2. Saving your clients’ time will become achievable if you:
Rigorously Select Your Clients from the Get-go: As IT Recruitment Entrepreneurs, it’s crucial to identify who your client is and who isn’t. Don’t accept conditions that are unacceptable to you from the outset, and don’t approach a job vacancy with a mindset of ‘maybe we’ll close it’. Decide as a team whether to work with a client or not, who holds responsibility, and what you aim to gain from the collaboration with the particular client.
Hoarding clients ‘just in case’, coupled with non-systematic communication, leads to spreading yourselves thin, and the client might express dissatisfaction, expecting better results.
The more mature the company and the more experienced the staff, the easier it is to make a choice. However, without the luxury of choosing clients, there’s a risk of getting stuck in development due to team burnout and not achieving the expected profits.
Close Job Vacancies Efficiently: In an ideal world, you may close 1 out of 1 job vacancies, but in reality, it’s more likely to achieve 1 out of 3. To achieve this, you need to understand your client’s company and the decision-makers as well as possible, establish communication, and foster long-term relationships with them.
Predict which candidates might be needed at any given moment and work on networking in advance, preparing suitable candidates for various job vacancies.
For more efficient management of recruitment processes, consider automating the recruitment process and utilizing Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS) when needed.
As practice shows, clients may need to invest more time initially, however, with a competent, stable, and thoughtful service provider, these efforts should pay off tenfold in mutual understanding down the line.
For instance, discerning what ‘culture-fit’ means for your company, understanding the precise level of proficiency in RxJava and Kotlin required for a particular candidate for an Android position, and identifying exactly what this promising developer needs to improve on to potentially join the company in another six months.
3. Providing Objective and Up-to-Date Information Regarding the Job Market, Applicants, and Competitors
This is an integral part of a recruiter’s job, even if, in our culture, clients are not always ready to pay for it. However, it’s crucial to share information about who else is looking for similar candidates, under what conditions, how many recruitment stages they have, whom you decided not to hire, and who others have hired and for how much.
This often helps expand the client’s “worldview,” especially if they haven’t searched for staff in a long time, are looking for a different type of staff, or are relying on outdated or inaccurate data.
You possess a deep understanding of the market: working with candidates day in and day out, befriending fellow recruiters who share information about salary levels, staff turnover, and peculiar internal situations. Therefore, assist in decision-making, share what you know, propose conducting individual research, don’t hesitate to insist on your viewpoint.
There have been instances where, together with clients, decisions were made that we weren’t on the same page due to differences in market perceptions, and six months later, the client gave feedback that they had lost time by not listening.
Your attitude as professionals who care, having a confident, justified position, always helps in building a partnership.
4. Promotion and Conveying Accurate Information About the Company to the Job Seeker Market
This is an incredibly important task that requires immersion, time, and team professionalism. As of now, in my opinion, businesses have not fully realized how detrimental thoughtless spam massaging to every candidate with identical texts linking to a job description in a Google document can be, especially when there are numerous errors in the recipient’s name and in the text itself.
The inability to answer questions about where the company’s office is located and what will be required on the project is a problem. Here and now for the recruiter — this is just another vacancy and a “shot in the dark” at a thousand candidates. In the perspective of even a year — this can lead to permanently damaged relationships with developers, a distorted representation of your client in the market, and a nauseating reflex in candidates upon receiving another email, “Are you interested in the job? Click the link!” from your colleagues.
Clients don’t always delve into how you are searching; many are focused on the result at any cost. Hence, they warn from the start that three agencies have already been engaged for finding an ordinary Senior Java developer. But there are no stop-lists; it’s impossible to communicate with the technical team — they have already spoken with three others, and it hasn’t yielded much.
Therefore, it’s important from the outset to discuss in detail and agree with the client on what exactly is important to convey about the company in the market, find out if there are other recruiters sourcing parallelly with you, and, if possible, ascertain who they are.
Working in tandem with other professionals is a viable approach. We have a list of companies we are ready to collaborate with, either concurrently or sequentially, on job vacancies. These firms invest resources in their staff, maintain communication hygiene, and overall, exhibit exemplary behavior in the market.
On the flip side, akin to the best representatives of IT Recruitment Entrepreneurs, each one of us probably has a list of those after whom working becomes an untenable task. With these ‘anti-heroes’, consulting invariably pivots towards how to amend the situation post their detrimental and subpar recruiting efforts.
Almost every candidate pays attention to who says what and how, or writes on behalf of companies. When you take on a vacancy, remember, with every mention of a client’s vacancy, especially with a direct link to their site, you automatically bear the responsibility for what the candidate learns and the ensuing goodwill or badwill about the company you’re promoting.
Conclusion
Undoubtedly, the low entry barrier, the opportunity for high earnings tied to USD or EUR, and the ability to work from anywhere in the world with some companies — all of these aspects are very appealing and make the role of a recruiter seem like it’s not rocket science.
However, take a look around — a LinkedIn search for the keywords “Technical Recruiter” yields 481,000 (!) individuals. Let’s assume, out of this total number of IT Recruitment Entrepreneurs, 10% are fake profiles and 20% are inactive for a myriad of reasons. Yet, when you match their number against the count of clients and candidates, it’s not far from a disbalance.
Clients often get confused about whom to approach, and what constitutes adequate, effective recruitment, and where to find a reliable service provider. Moreover, with so much informational noise around, it becomes harder for each recruiter to reach out to clients.
If recruiting services remain a “black box” for clients, and you don’t invest in training your staff or delve into the business of those seeking your professional help, the industry risks significantly losing its reputation. Candidates will continue to retreat from social networks and ignore your requests, while companies will find it easier to hire personnel in Brazil, Poland, Indonesia, etc. And they will work with those who are aware and remember the recruitment goals discussed in this article.